Young arson suspects leave neighbors rattled

The last time Cheryl Romanik remembered seeing Ann Lazabeck was on Christmas Eve at the Word & Worship Fellowship in North Braddock.

Romanik is the office administrator at the fellowship. Lazabeck was the elderly woman killed in a Feb. 16 fire at her Grandview Avenue home that authorities now believe was set by a pair of teen-age neighbors - both junior firefighters.

'They're both from the neighborhood, too, and they weren't members here, but we did see them involved in some of our outreach in the community,' Romanik said of Chad Pruchnitzky and James F. Moore III, both 15 and neighbors of Lazabeck. The pair were charged with criminal homicide and were arraigned early Friday on arson-related charges.

'This is a small neighborhood where everyone knows each other,' Romanik said. 'We have a nice little community and everyone is heartbroken over this. We're praying for the boys and their families and the Lazabecks. It's a tragedy.'

Two of Lazabeck's six children, John and Theresa, lived with their 85-year-old mother and were members of Word & Worship, and they occasionally would take her to church with them, Romanik recalled.

'I don't know that she was bedridden, but I know that lately she was not well and she was in bed a lot,' Romanik said.

In recent years, Ann Lazabeck was frequently seen at another church - Good Shepherd Parish in Braddock, where she liked to play bingo.

Her son, John, was working when the fire broke out in the middle of the afternoon on Feb. 16.

'Theresa was coming home and saw the flames in the backyard,' said Julia Ceyba of Munhall, who is married to Ann Lazabeck's brother. 'She tried to get in to save her mother, but it was too late.'

Several unidentified witnesses told police that Moore and Pruchnitzky set several other fires in North Braddock to increase the number of calls the department answers, court papers state. The two had joined North Braddock Fire Company No. 1 on Nov. 16, not in December, as police said previously.

Moore and Pruchnitzky were arraigned early yesterday on charges of setting several other blazes in the area. They face a coroner's hearing March 13.

'Those boys set fires before and now they're just catching them,' said Ceyba, who is also 85 and shares a similar affinity for bingo.

The county police homicide unit and detectives assigned to the county fire marshal's office charged the boys after interviewing multiple witnesses, officials said.

The teens also are charged with setting fires in: